Fushigi Yuugi

Dawn and I made a run through the 52 episode series over the past two months. Thoughts:

1. Japanese voices > English voices
2. After removing the intro song (~1:30m?), intro story recap (1m?), and outro (1:30m?), the shows seemed to average ~20 minutes.
3. 52 episodes of watching Tamahome and Miaka push apart and come together: Tamahome rejects Miaka's declaration of love; Tamahome swallows Kotuko; Miaka can't become spoiled in her quest for the shinzaho; Nakago's assault of Miaka; Tamahome decides to cut off relations to lessen the pain later; Tamahome runs off when he learns he's a character in a book; Tamahome returns to the book; finally, reunited--whew.
   
4. I appreciated Miaka's use of empathy to save Mitsukake's restless lover from the sickness demon--amazing to see it played out in an anime.
5. Always, always, always, kill the bad guys when they're down and out. It cost them the life of Chiriko and the first shinzaho.
6. "Here, I don't know how this item will help you, but I'm sure it will advance the plot in some unknown way in the near future." For example, Hotohori's holy sword.
7. The show didn't pull many punches with taboos regarding sexuality, abuse, and violence.
8. Tokyo really sucks at giant monster defense. It looked like they had planes in the air to dispatch nuclear warheads, but the show left that thought unresolved.
9. Amiboshi's story arc casts an anti-war sentiment to the show, while Miaka's story arc casts a proactive peace through strength sentiment to the show. Sentiment winner in my opinion: Miaka; Amiboshi retreats into memory-less bliss while Miaka saves the day.
   
10. Characters I wish the writers had included more in the action: Mitsukake, Chiriko--these two barely get screen time. It approaches parody watching Mitsukake continually fail to save those close to him, even though he can heal people to complete health "once per day." Chiriko, boy genius and mystical musician, wanders around with the team until he gets possessed--the writers allow him the glory of stabbing himself to death with a blunt top. *sigh*
11. The handling of homosexuality in the show surprised me--Nuriko, after the shock wears off, becomes very endearing in the story, as she takes Miaka under her wing. Tatsuke's "I don't like girls" stance doesn't resonate so much, even though he sacrifices everything in hotheaded defense of Miaka.
    

Overall, I appreciated Miaka's personality and the show's attempt (however short) to show the Seiryu warriors as partial products of their environment: Nakago's single minded quest for revenge, Soi's desperation for recognition, Suboshi's unrequited devotion to Yui, the wolf-man's fearfulness and anger of pain. We learn nothing of Tomo or the other magician whom Chiriko dispatches. The random decision for spirits to return to save the day for Tamahome when he fights Suboshi seemed odd to me.

Worth a watch, in my opinion.